The attorney for Lindsay Clancy has publicly asked President Donald Trump to consider pardoning his client, four days after a Massachusetts judge declared a mistrial in her murder case.
Kevin Reddington appealed Tuesday morning in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” addressing the president directly. “Mr. President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady and the person she is, what she’s been through, and consider a pardon,” Reddington said.
Clancy faces three counts of murder in the deaths of her three children at the family’s home in Duxbury, a suburb south of Boston, on Jan. 24, 2023. The children were Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, an infant. Clancy pleaded not guilty.
The trial ended on Sept. 4, when the judge declared a mistrial after jurors deadlocked following more than a week of deliberations.
Because the jury returned no verdict, the charges against Clancy remain unresolved, and she stands convicted of nothing. ABC News reported that her defense team and the district attorney’s office are in discussions over a possible agreement, an outcome that would determine whether she is tried a second time.
The request runs into a threshold question that the appeal itself did not address. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution gives the president power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States” federal crimes. Clancy was charged by Massachusetts under state law, and clemency in a state prosecution rests with state authorities rather than the White House. Separately, a pardon conventionally follows a conviction, and no verdict has been returned in this case.
Point being, Trump does not have the authority to issue a pardon in this case, so this is nothing but a headline grab by the attorney.
Reddington did not set out a legal theory for how federal clemency would reach a state charge, and the interview did not include a response from prosecutors. The president has not commented publicly on the request.
It’s shocking that the media did not immediately push back on this request and point out the absurdity of Clancy’s attorney, not to mention his lack of understanding of the law.
What happens next sits with the parties rather than with Washington. Prosecutors may retry the case, negotiate a resolution, or drop the charges. A mistrial on a deadlocked jury is not an acquittal, and double jeopardy does not bar a second trial in those circumstances, leaving the district attorney’s office with the decision.
The televised appeal is itself unusual. Pardon requests are ordinarily routed through formal channels, and a direct on-air address to the president over a state case puts the question in front of a national audience rather than before the authority that would have to act on it.
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